Hess Co. (NYSE:HES) Receives $170.50 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Hess Co. (NYSE:HES) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $170.50.

HES has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Hess from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Hess from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $150.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Hess in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Hess from $149.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Hess from $157.00 to $167.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th.

Hess Price Performance

Shares of HES stock opened at $144.32 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $141.02 and its 200 day moving average is $139.53. Hess has a 1-year low of $123.79 and a 1-year high of $163.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.13. The company has a market cap of $44.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.82 and a beta of 1.18.

Hess (NYSE:HES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The oil and gas producer reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.96 billion. Hess had a net margin of 20.58% and a return on equity of 27.41%. The company’s revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.64 EPS. Research analysts predict that Hess will post 9.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hess Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Hess’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO John B. Hess sold 125,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.08, for a total transaction of $18,385,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 217,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,047,849.52. This represents a 36.45 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Geurt G. Schoonman sold 6,000 shares of Hess stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.91, for a total value of $851,460.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 27,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,914,019.71. This represents a 17.87 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 314,370 shares of company stock worth $45,856,309. Corporate insiders own 9.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HES. HBK Investments L P raised its position in Hess by 16.7% during the third quarter. HBK Investments L P now owns 7,117,820 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $966,600,000 after acquiring an additional 1,017,720 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Hess by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,537,162 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $884,709,000 after purchasing an additional 74,085 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Hess by 58.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,753,126 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $509,675,000 after buying an additional 1,391,311 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Hess by 31.0% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,318,822 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $450,696,000 after buying an additional 785,270 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Hess by 6.6% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,451,807 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $361,691,000 after acquiring an additional 150,945 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.51% of the company’s stock.

About Hess

Hess Corporation, an exploration and production company, explores, develops, produces, purchases, transports, and sells crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. The company operates in two segments, Exploration and Production, and Midstream. It conducts production operations primarily in the United States, Guyana, the Malaysia/Thailand Joint Development Area, and Malaysia; and exploration activities principally offshore Guyana, the U.S.